PLEASE REMEMBER THAT NOTHING ON THIS
WEBPAGE IS OFFICIAL...
Almost ten years ago, at the
left is
our map of land use in Weston...in 2008, "About Town" offers our
existing land use map overview of Weston (still a work in
progress). The Town of
Weston did a serious capital planning evaluation of town and school
building conditions (click on center item above) and the cost of repair
in 2008 dollars. We don't know what red vehicle is in the picture
(or for
that matter, which building it is parked in front of), but perhaps we
can assume that it represents some future regional cooperation venture
for emergency services!
WHAT HAS CHANGED SINCE
JUNE 2000? WHAT HAS NOT CHANGED?
Planning is
centralized and professionalized;
Capital planning is integrated with other plans on a ten-year
cycle:
Schools complex and fields projects are completed; "OPTIONS FOR CHANGES IN THE TIER
STRUCTURE OF THE TRANSPORTATION PROGRAM" study dated November 13, 2008 here.
Full development: vacant tracts
almost all developed or permanently preserved by now.
Education:
WESTON:
Spring, Town Hall gazebo; Weston
High School, summer; SAUGATUCK RESERVOIR: autumn (looking
south from Redding),
winter (looking north).
Photo of Saugatuck Reservoir looking south in autumn by
Joan
Lewis.
From the Town of Weston website:
S C H O O L
S
Town Hall Annex on School Road (in another incarnation)
Tracy Kulikowski: Weston
names
new land use director
Weston FORUM
by BRIAN GIOIELE
Nov 21, 2006
After more than a year of searching, local leaders found their new land
use director right under their noses.
The Board of Selectmen Thursday approved the appointment of Tracy
Kulikowski — who had been the administrative assistant to the owner’s
representative for the school building project — as the land use
director. She is set to begin her new role Jan. 2.
“You know Tracy from her work with (owner’s representative) Carl
Goedeke and the School Building Committee over the last two years,”
said Tom Landry, town administrator, in a letter to the Board of
Selectmen. “She has been a terrific asset to that project, and I have
been pleased to have her assistance over that time.”
While Ms. Kulikowski has been known for her work with Mr. Goedeke, Mr.
Landry said, she also has extensive experience as a professional
planner.
Ms. Kulikowski worked for eight years as a professional planner for the
state of Maryland, the town of Lakewood, Ohio, and on a regional
planning commission in Ohio.
She holds an undergraduate degree from Cornell University in urban and
regional studies, as well as a master’s degree in urban planning,
design, and development from Cleveland State University. She also has a
law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law.
“I have no doubt that she will be successful in the position,” added
Mr. Landry, “and I am genuinely excited by the prospect of her joining
our staff.”
Ms. Kulikowski will work 20 hours per week, at an hourly rate of
$37.11. She will receive health, retirement and other fringe benefits,
as provided for 20-plus hour employees in the town’s personnel policies
and practices handbook.
This brings to a close the search for a land use director, a position
that was created last year at the request of Mr. Landry. The selectmen
and Board of Finance approved the new position, and it was budgeted for
in last year’s fiscal year budget, but no candidate could be found to
fill the vacancy. According to Mr. Landry’s letter to the
selectmen,
he had been in negotiations with the new collective bargaining unit in
an attempt to allow a current, unidentified, town employee — presently
a member of the bargaining unit — to take the “non-bargaining unit”
post.
“It is now certain that a middle ground agreement on the issue is not
possible,” stated Mr. Landry. “Accordingly, I must now pursue other
options to fill this critical position.”
And that option was Ms. Kulikowski, who will now provide additional
professional planning assistance to the Conservation Commission,
Planning and Zoning Commission, and Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA).
Mr. Landry first proposed this new post in August 2005, saying that his
assessment was that the town’s land use staff is “challenged in meeting
the demands posed by the complexity and volume of land use permits and
subdivision applications we receive.”
He then proposed that the town organize its current land use personnel
into a single Land Use Department under the supervisory direction of a
new full-time position entitled director of land use services.
“A department head position can maximize the utilization of the staff
and resources that we do have, and can assure that applications receive
a comprehensive, rather than a piecemeal, review,” he wrote at the time.
He noted the P&Z Commission has no professional staff to provide
direction and assistance in plan review or ordinance revision, and that
issues before the commission are increasingly technical and complex.
Town
employees settle into 'mods'
Norwalk HOUR
Jeremy Soulliere
November 20, 2007
A number of Weston's municipal employees have been on the move in
recent weeks, shifting to what was once vacant office space on the
grounds of the town's schools.
The employees — who include planning and zoning, building and social
service workers, among others — are in the process of relocating from a
variety of town locations to the Kinderland building next to the
school's administrative offices on School Road.
The modular facility once housed kindergarten classes before the
schools underwent renovations a few years ago, and only a portion of
the space was being used by school administrators, said First Selectman
Woody Bliss.
The modular offices offer more space to Weston employees who were
working in cramped and inadequate conditions, he said, and they will
help consolidate the town's work force, which had been scattered in a
number of locations in town.
"We had people in all kinds of places, and they were crowded into
overloaded spaces," said Bliss, who noted that some employees were
working out of the library, some out of a trailer next to town hall,
and some in a less than ideal space in the basement of the town hall,
among other locations.
The move, which should be completed sometime next month, is only a
temporary solution, however, he said, as town officials decide on a
more permanent one.
There has been some discussion about either expanding town hall or
building a new police station to free up some space at town hall, Bliss
said, but the matter needs to be further studied and decided upon.
Beyond the town's planning and zoning, building and social services
workers, he said, the Kinderland facility will also now be the
temporary home for Town Engineer John Conte, Fire Marshal John Pokorny
and Conservation Planner Fred Anderson.
The Parks and Recreation Department, which had been working out of a
trailer next to the Town Hall, will soon be moving into the recently
vacated Jarvis House across the road, Bliss said, where Conte, Anderson
and others who have moved to the Kinderland facility were once housed.
With some employees moving out of town hall, there will also be some
office shifts there, he said, and some of the spaces will be
reconfigured.
Tom Landry, Weston's town administrator, said one of the intentions of
the move was to have employees from similar departments working in
close proximity, so residents seeking help from the town's land use
departments or social service departments needed to make only one stop.
"We put departments together that were like departments," he said.
John Reed, interim superintendent of Weston schools, said the move
seems to make sense.
"It would seem to be a good use of space," he said. "We have the space
and the town needs it."
The office shift will, however, begin to change the "landscape" of the
situation at the school's administrative offices, Reed said.
"I don't think anybody knows how this will affect traffic," he said.
"It really just has to play itself out."
A number of parents tend to use the parking spaces outside the school
administrative offices after school, Reed said, as they attend sporting
events at the schools. The spaces may not be available for those
parents now, he said.
"There may be times parents can't use those spots," Reed said.
The parking situation at the schools administrative offices will be
"tight" with all the added workers on-site, Bliss said, but the town
has recently added a handful of spaces to the parking lot there and
it's still evaluating ways to expand it.
"It's not a perfect solution, but, by in large, it should be better
than before," he said.
SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE
DEPARTMENT...FOR EXAMPLE, WATERSHED BOUNDARIES AND THE LARGER
PICTURE:
From the Domiski-Oakrock Study of 1976, at
the left, watershed boundaries in Weston and at the right, watersheds
within which Weston is but a part.